Current structures such as armor, microelectronics, or critical infrastructure systems lack effective, real-time sensing systems to detect damage events of interest, such as an impact from a ballistic object, a tamper event, a physical impact such as from debris (such as airborne or space debris), or other damage events which may affect structural integrity or cause failure.
Detection of armor or surface failures may be currently based on aural indications or manual inspection after an event which could be delayed due to ongoing use of equipment or operations. When a critical armor or surface element becomes compromised, lives may be placed at risk. Currently, there is no known way of effectively detecting these failures immediately or as the event happens.
Security forces, emergency response, or law enforcement personnel often rely on body armor and personal protective equipment. Due to designs of such armor or equipment, users cannot reliably predict where a potential armor or equipment failure is occurring, or if the armor or equipment has been compromised to the point of potential failure.
Traditionally, medics and emergency response personnel must manually inspect a victim for ballistic wounds that have occurred from damage events, such as bomb blasts or gunfire. They can only perform and make an assessment based on visible injuries, such as a penetration wound.
Space based systems also lack effective detection systems which meet requirements for space launch, such as liftoff and other constraints. For example, onboard the international space station, astronauts and ground controllers do not know that an outer panel has been compromised unless it has damaged a system or the impact site is leaking gas. Often, manual inspection of the station is required by performing spacewalks or by robotics to find potentially compromised areas.
An effective impact sensing system could be used to avert potential disasters of units in the space frontier from contact with space junk, and hypervelocity impacts of meteorites and micrometeoroids. A sensing system on the shields or exterior of a spacecraft may determine the shielding materials integrity during liftoff and flight through the earth's atmosphere. For example, if a piece of shielding had been displaced, a sensing system may determine where on the craft the shielding has been removed in the event it may be repaired once docked to the space station. This information may be communicated to the astronauts and the space flight control center to determine the extent of damage and to determine if the craft is a risk to astronaut's lives and/or critical equipment.
In the aircraft industry, active monitoring during all phases of an aircraft's life span will improve the safety margin of critical components. In the past, aircraft have had fuselage failures because fatigue cracks went undetected during the flight. If the skin of the aircraft is actively monitored, a pilot could be warned about developing problem(s) and mitigation actions could be taken. The information may also be fed into the aircraft's data recorder (i.e., “black box”) providing greater detail on the aircraft's condition. This would lead to safer aircraft and extended aircraft lifespans.
In the commercial vehicle industry, a sensor system on key components of a vehicle may determine the extent of damage while a damage event, such as a collision is happening. This information may be used to deploy specific airbags to those areas of the vehicle being adversely affected or compromised.
In unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), battle field robots, autonomous systems, or any device requiring a circuit board, active monitoring may independently and quickly detect damage and automatically reroute signals, power, and command and control to other redundant systems without having to delay for error detection or other fault sensing techniques. This method may, for example, allow an autonomous robotic device to receive damage such as a bullet hole through a circuit board and automatically shut down the damaged section and reallocate lost functionality to other systems. Sensing systems which are capable of being adapted to design specifications of a microelectronic system may be utilized to improve the survivability of such microelectronic systems. For example, a sensing system which is light weight and easily mounted to an item of interest may provide continuous monitoring and enable a capacity for dynamically reconfiguring a circuit board for internal physical damage that may be caused by events such as physical trauma, shock, vibration or heat.
Sensing systems may also be used to identify breached containers holding sensitive documents, information, or materials. Such sensing systems should be easily monitored such that mitigation actions may be taken in real time before information/material is unrecoverable. Improvements to existing sensing technology are needed to detect a breach of any type of container for commercial or military use, and relay that breach to a monitoring system.
According to an illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, a system is provided to produce real-time information on a variety of damage events, including structural, perimeter, and/or armor integrity failure conditions of a monitored device or unit by means of a resistive/conductive sensor system. One illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure provides sensors to areas where impacts may occur from a ballistic means or other known or unknown sources. Exemplary ballistic strike detection methods and structures may be used to pinpoint a location of an impact site, provide an estimation of the ballistic object's relative velocity, and provide an estimation of the ballistic object's size.
According to an illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, a detection system includes a first layer adapted to a damage event, the first layer adapted to conduct an electromagnetic signal and having a plurality of electromagnetic signal measuring portions oriented in a first orientation. At least one coupling point is in electrical communication with at least one of the signal measuring portions of the first layer and is adapted to receive an electromagnetic signal input. An electromagnetic signal generator is coupled to the at least one input coupling point to provide the electromagnetic signal input. At least one output coupling point is in electrical communication with at least one of the signal measuring portions of the first layer and is adapted to provide an electromagnetic signal output. An electromagnetic signal measuring device is coupled to the at least one output coupling point. A processing system is adapted to control the electromagnetic signal generator and the electromagnetic signal measuring device, wherein the processing system is adapted to determine data on the damage event based on changes between the electromagnetic signal input at the at least one input coupling point and the electromagnetic signal output at the at least one output coupling point. The damage event may be further determined from an electromagnetic signal change calculation which is based on a comparison between a first electromagnetic signal measuring portion and a second electromagnetic signal measuring portion. Illustratively, an output device is adapted to produce damage data comprising a at least one of a damage alert, damage location, damage size, damage orientation, time data, and damage event category.
According to a further illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, a detection system includes a sensing device configured to be operably coupled to a structure of interest and to sense a damage event. The sensing device includes a first layer, and a plurality of measuring portions supported by the first layer, each of the measuring portions including an input coupling point and an output coupling point and adapted to conduct an electrical signal from the input coupling point to the output coupling point. A measurement system is in electrical communication with the measuring portions of the sensing device, the measurement system configured to provide electrical signal inputs to the input coupling points of the sensing device, and configured to measure electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points of the sensing device. A damage detection processing system is operably coupled to the measurement system, the processing system configured to determine data on the damage event based on changes between the electrical signal inputs at the input coupling points and the electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points, the data including a location of the damage event on the sensing device and a damage event origination axis directed to the point of origin of the damage event. A user interface is operably coupled to the damage detection processing system and is configured to provide a visual display of the damage data including a representation of a damage alert, the damage event location and the damage event origination axis.
According to another illustrative embodiment of the disclosure, a method of detecting a damage event associated with a structure of interest includes the steps of coupling a first layer to a structure of interest, the first layer including a plurality of measuring portions oriented in a first direction, providing input electrical signals to input coupling points of each of the measuring portions, and measuring output electrical signals from output coupling points of each of the measuring portions. The method further includes the step of determining data on a damage event based on changes between the electrical signal inputs at each of the input coupling points and the electrical signal outputs at each of the output coupling points.
According to a further illustrative embodiment of the disclosure, a vehicle damage detection system includes a plurality of sensing devices supported by a vehicle and defining a sensing perimeter. Each of the sensing devices includes a layer, and a plurality of measuring portions supported by the layer, each of the measuring portions including an input coupling point and an output coupling point and adapted to conduct an electrical signal from the input coupling point to the output coupling point. A measurement system is in electrical communication with the measuring portions of each of the sensing devices. The measurement system is configured to provide electrical signal inputs to the input coupling points of each of the sensing devices, and is configured to measure electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points of each of the sensing devices. A plurality of couplers secure the plurality of sensing devices to an exterior of the vehicle. A damage detection processing system is operably coupled to the measurement system, and is configured to determine data on a damage event from the sensing devices based on changes between the electrical signal inputs at the input coupling points and the electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points, the data including a location of the damage event on the sensing device and a damage event origination axis directed to the point of origin of the damage event.
According to another illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of manufacturing a vehicle damage detection system includes the steps of preparing an outer surface of a vehicle to facilitate coupling thereto, applying a first electrically isolating material to the prepared surface of the vehicle, applying a first electrically conductive layer on the electrically isolative material, installing a plurality of electrical interconnects on the first electrically conductive layer, coupling the plurality of electrical interconnects to a measurement system, and applying an overcoat layer to the conductive layer and electrical interconnects.
According to yet another illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, an event detection system includes an impact sensing device including a layer, and a plurality of measuring portions supported by the layer, each of the measuring portions including an input coupling point and an output coupling point and adapted to conduct an electrical signal from the input coupling point to the output coupling point. A measurement system is in electrical communication with the measuring portions of the impact sensing device. The measurement system is configured to provide electrical signal inputs to the input coupling points of the sensing device, and is configured to measure electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points of the sensing device. An acoustic detection system includes a plurality of microphones configured to detect soundwaves generated by an event. The acoustic detection system is configured to process time offsets from the soundwaves at the plurality of microphones for determining the direction of the source of the event. A processor is operably coupled to the measurement system and the acoustic detection system for determining a damage event origination axis directed to the point of origin of the event. The damage event origination axis is determined by the processor based on changes between the electrical signal inputs at the input coupling points and the electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points of the impact sensing device, and time offsets from the soundwaves at the plurality of microphones of the acoustic detection system. Further illustratively, an imaging system including at least one camera configured to detect weapon fire flash events may be operably coupled to the processor.
According to a further illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of detecting a damage event associated with a structure of interest includes the steps of providing a sensing device including a plurality of measuring portions, providing input electrical signals to input coupling points of each of the measuring portions, measuring output electrical signals from output coupling points of each of the measuring portions, and determining data on a damage event based on changes between the electrical signal inputs at each of the input coupling points and the electrical signal outputs at each of the output coupling points. The method further includes the steps of detecting soundwaves generated by the source of the damage event, detecting flash events from the source of the damage event, determining a damage event origination axis based on changes between the electrical signal inputs at the input coupling points and the electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points of the impact sensing device, and correlating the damage event origination axis with time offsets from the soundwaves at the plurality of microphones of the acoustic detection system, and the flash events from the imaging system.
According to a further illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, an impact detection system includes a sensing device configured to be operably coupled to a structure of interest and to sense impacts. The sensing device includes a layer, and a plurality of measuring portions supported by the layer, each of the measuring portions including an input coupling point and an output coupling point and adapted to conduct an electrical signal from the input coupling point to the output coupling point. A measurement system is in electrical communication with the measuring portions of the sensing device. The measurement system is configured to provide electrical signal inputs to the input coupling points of the sensing device, and is configured to measure electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points of the sensing device. A damage detection processing system is operably coupled to the measurement system. The processing system is configured to determine data on a damage event from the sensed impact based on changes between the electrical signal inputs at the input coupling points and the electrical signal outputs at the output coupling points, the data including a location of the damage event on the sensing device and an damage event origination axis directed to the point of origin of the ballistic impact. A user interface is operably coupled to the damage detection processing system, the user interface including a plurality of visual indicators, the visual indicators including a plurality of light sources arranged in vertically spaced rows, each of the vertically spaced rows including a plurality of horizontally spaced light sources. Further illustratively, a targeting device is operably coupled to the measurement system. The targeting device may include a slewing mechanism configured to adjust elevation and azimuth of a targeting member for alignment with the origination axis.
According to a further illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of detecting a damage event associated with a structure of interest includes the steps of providing a sensing device including a plurality of measuring portions, providing input electrical signals to input coupling points of each of the measuring portions, measuring output electrical signals from output coupling points of each of the measuring portions, and determining data on a damage event based on changes between the electrical signal inputs at each of the input coupling points and the electrical signal outputs at each of the output coupling points. The method further includes the step of adjusting a targeting device in response to the data on the damage event.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.